AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Video Card Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Video Card Review - We put the new AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 to the test in eleven games mixed among DX11, DX12, and Vulkan to find out what it can deliver. We pit it against the competition's GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070, and in the end, find the strengths and weaknesses of the new AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 for PC gaming. Is there value at $499?
 
/sad trombone

so 1080 speed at almost 2x the power and over a year late for 100 bucks more

Yes....What a fantastic deal! ( cue sarcastic tone of voice). I realize that competition is good for everyone ( except Nvidia ), but C'mon AMD After a year +....is this the best u got?
 
looks like a 1080 for me, can only imagine how hot and loud this thing would run in my node 202 even with 2x120mm fans feeding it and the corsair sfx 600w...freesync going to waste this round unless the vega 56 ends up alot better on noise/thermals and comes in around 1070


 
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18 minutes and only 5 other responses?!?!

I guess rumor is better than reality?
 
*sigh* Now I'm back to square one. Guess I'll wait for the inevitable price drops, because right now, I'm not seeing $500 worth of graphics card. I already have a Freesync monitor though, so I'd prefer to go AMD instead of nVidia this time around.

I'm really hoping the "fine wine" thing pans out for Vega, and doubly hope they fix the AA issue. This is really disappointing.

18 minutes and only 5 other responses?!?!

I guess rumor is better than reality?
Maybe people are, you know, actually *reading* the review?
 
Great review as always Brent... great job there.. nice to see again a full review with AMD in the high-end segment, for sure less boring than reading Nvidia vs Nvidia card reviews... Nice to see the 1080 and 1070 there but was also hoping for a full comparison to Nvidia 1080Ti Flagship.

I was waiting for this for just too long, nice to see some of the more avid and "Enthusiastic" AMD Fanatic eating delicious crows.. =)..
 
Great reporting and informative read.
I'm happy to see an attempt at being competitive.
Looking forward to that custom Vega review! :D

I was really hoping for a last minute upset by AMD.
Unfortunately, we got damn near what everyone was expecting.
 
Damn. I wished Nvidia actually had some competition. I'll just have to wait for the 1080ti to drop a little in price. This VEGA is not an upgrade for me with a 980ti. I can't believe it can't even match the 1080 performance(I say can't because if you turn AA on, fps tanks). I guess it's not bad if you are buying a monitor (freesync) at the same time as your graphics card.
 
Nice review but with that power usage I think I'll pass and just hope prices drop on the 1070's or something.. or maybe I'll just stick with what I have til next year.

also seeing that power usage and exhaust temps gave me terrible flashbacks of the gtx480, lol.
 
But the magic drivers!
The release of the magic drivers has been postponed to coincide with the next alignment of the planets with the sun to reduce the potential for vastly intelligent cosmic beings noticing us thanks to the immense power information density of Vega. It's simply too powerful and ahead of its time, maybe next year
 
Don't worry, overclocking will save it, especially on water.

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I liked the conflict between Brent and Kyle over noise levels. I'll be keeping an eye on noise level opinions from other reviews.

Be curious to see if loud gunshots finally caught up to Kyle and his hearing is failing.

As for myself, I was going to bite on Vega as long as the price was reasonable. As it stands, I'll probably grab a 1080 for the next year or so.
 
I liked the conflict between Brent and Kyle over noise levels. I'll be keeping an eye on noise level opinions from other reviews.

Be curious to see if loud gunshots finally caught up to Kyle and his hearing is failing.

As for myself, I was going to bite on Vega as long as the price was reasonable. As it stands, I'll probably grab a 1080 for the next year or so.
This is of course a possibility. Also it makes me wonder if the fan is different in our cards.
 
So after more than a year we get slower, louder and 50% more power hungry for the same price, if not more. That was worth the wait.

On a positive note at least the 56 seems to be competitive based on first glances at other sites.
 
Now we know why Treadripper reviews were released a few days before Vega, hoping to soften the blow.
 
Very intersting - looking forward to more reviews! Kinda sad that we get this performance so late in the game - but at least there's something at least competing with the 2nd fastest... ? Curious if this changes anything with the "best bang for your buck" type card :p
 
Just finished reading and damn the AA causing such a performance hit was surprising. I wonder if that's due to immature drivers or an underlying architectural weakness? Either way I'm not surprised, we all knew where it would end up.
 
Is it safe to say that these new cards require 2x the power of the same performance nvidia?
Is it safe to say, if you have a non blower cooler, such as the msi gamerX, you are going to have a bad time exhausting 300+ watts UP the case and out the 120mm case fan?

It looks like you need a layout with a sli in mind.
 
I read this review, TomsHardware, and Guru3D and looked at game performance for each of the titles that overlapped between the reviews. It's crazy the performance difference between the 3. This one definitely skews toward the Nvidia side, while others seem to be even, or point to the AMD side
 
I read this review, TomsHardware, and Guru3D and looked at game performance for each of the titles that overlapped between the reviews. It's crazy the performance difference between the 3. This one definitely skews toward the Nvidia side, while others seem to be even, or point to the AMD side

That would probably be the [H] review whilst playing the games and others running canned benchmarks. I, personally, don't watch my games play themselves, so [H] reviews are a bit more relevant for me...
 
This review is a clear example of the AMD too much BS Marketing, in almost every game Minimum Framerates were equal or a bit higher on the GTX 1080 side... and performance were mostly better on the 1080 FE so with AIB 1080 will be a big gap in performance versus Vega.
 
Reg Air cooled $600 and water cooled $700 **** this they jack up the price by $100 buck have look on newegg you may as well just buy the GTX 1080 or Ti
 
Frontier Edition performs no different. RX Vega supposed to be faster eh?

yeah.. RX VEGA is just the FE with a more aggressive fan profile to keep clocks higher that's all. that's why it can keep those clocks but that's the sames reason its VERY loud..
 
Good review as always!.

Will the VR results be coming soon?

Thx for your hardware work!
 
Nice review as always guys. Love the actual gameplay benching.

Looks like my local Microcenter will sell you the reference model for 599. Only a hundred over Msrp!

Hey they also have some rx470s in stock at 349....

It's still a sad time if you want an AMD card it seems.
 
Just noticed the Silver award was placed on it, not sure if I didn't notice it the first time or the strong criticism in the final impression made me conclude there would be no award.

Still, nice to finally get RX Vega out in the wild and move on. This constant Vega hype since April has been hard on poor Seymour.
 
I read this review, TomsHardware, and Guru3D and looked at game performance for each of the titles that overlapped between the reviews. It's crazy the performance difference between the 3. This one definitely skews toward the Nvidia side, while others seem to be even, or point to the AMD side
There are reasons we spend all the extra resources to actually PLAY GAMES instead of run benchmarks.
 
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